Reid Soars, Warren Shines

At the moment of his greatest political triumph, which will rank among the finest in the history of the United States Senate, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) reaches out in the tradition of Henry Clay to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). I join most Americans hoping they reach back in word and deed.

Congratulations are in order for President Obama, Vice President Biden and all members of the House and Senate from both parties who were reelected on Tuesday. This column is about four senators who will have extraordinary roles to play in the coming hours and years, and what they tell us about the state of the union as 2012 comes to a close.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) led the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee with the brilliant insight that the best politics for Democrats is to find the best candidates for America. The list of Democratic candidates for Senate seats that Murray did so much to assemble is among the most able and talented, as a group, of my lifetime and yours. She has earned the megastar status that now arrives for her.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is destined for great things in the Senate and on the national stage. Rubio embodies the Reaganesque notion of principled and creative conservatism, governmental seriousness and a politics of civility that is the best hope for the future of his party.

And let me be the first to reiterate my support for Hillary Rodham Clinton for president in 2016 with serious consideration given for Sen.-elect Elizabeth Warren as her running mate to shatter every last ceiling in the history of the greatest nation on earth, set the stage for three successive and successful two-term Democratic presidents and bring to fruition a new era of historic reform in the tradition of Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and the Kennedy-Johnson presidencies.

Warren will be the shining star of the Senate, the incorruptible leader of the next great wave of progressivism, whose voice will shake the rafters of the Senate with a power, passion and principle that voices of old politics do not even remotely understand today, but will soon.

Warren makes me more proud to be a Democrat than any candidate since this once-young man mourned the murder of Robert Francis Kennedy, who was taken from us generations too soon. I place on the agenda the notion of a Clinton-Warren ticket because in a nation that since Washington has been given the choice of two men on the ticket of all major parties in every election except two, why not consider two women, especially two extraordinarily gifted leaders such as Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren, who would win the acclaim of many men such as myself?

And now, a few words on Reid, who led Senate Democrats from minority to majority status.

While defeating a ferocious campaign against his reelection in 2010, he steered the Senate Democratic ship through the hurricane winds and tsunami waves of the Republican landslide of 2010 to maintain Democratic control of the Senate. In 2012, like the tallest tree in the Redwood forest, in a political achievement worthy of Statuary Hall, with so many Democrats running for reelection against odds that would confound every casino in the Las Vegas he loves, Reid and Patty have led Senate Democrats to a triumph that will be legendary in the annals of Senate lore.

Today Reid reaches out in the tradition of the man he reveres so much, Henry Clay. It is a time for compromise and a moment to govern.

Tomorrow for Harry Reid, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Patty Murray, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Elizabeth Warren and all who believe in the hope that lives and the dream that never dies, it will be time to think big again.

Brent Budowsky served as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, responsible for commerce and intelligence matters, including one of the core drafters of the CIA Identities Law. Served as Legislative Director to Congressman Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy Whip, House of Representatives. Currently a member of the International Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit. Left government in 1990 for marketing and public affairs business including major corporate entertainment and talent management.

One comment

One of the greatest wins in history? Obama got fewer votes this time around than he got in 2008. (And Romney got fewer votes than McCain did in 2008.) As inept a campaign as Romney ran, the margin in “one of the greatest” should have been greater. It was, however, one of the most significant elections in that it is likely to change the direction of the American Federal government to a decidedly leftward tilt. Note, too, that the election emphasized the political polarization that’s developed in the U.S. The same party controls both chambers of the legislature in 46 states (Nebraska excluded because it has a unicameral legislature). Republicans fully control the legislatures in 27 states; Democrats fully control 19. So only three states have a divided legislature. And only 12 states have a governor of a different party than that which controls the legislature. Clearly, both parties must make legitimate appeals to the electorate that will make compromise possible (an essential ingredient to a successful democracy) .

Of course, if the Republicans are as truly awful people as so many commentators on this site claim, the Democrats, with a super majority, should outlaw Republicanism and any pretenders under penalty of death. That should save the nation for eternity!

Regarding Elizabeth Warren, anyone who purposely misrepresents their ancestry for economic or political gain does not strike me as a person who is assuredly “incorruptible”. In Massachusetts, just about anyone or anything with a D after its name usually is elected. Remember, in the past, Bay Staters elected a Democrat who was in prison at the time of his victory.

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